All I Want 4 Christmas
by Moonfawn
Summary: On December 25th, they decided that they would have a party.


!DISCLAIMER: I do not own _Left 4 Dead _and/or any characters or concepts therein!

All I Want 4 Christmas

They decided to have a little holiday party for themselves on December 25th. Nothing too big or loud. Just a little get together between seven (mostly) friends in an evacuation shelter, where they could have a day of peace and quiet from their recent... challenges.

Francis burst into the dorm with a six-pack in each hand. "Did somebody order a party?"

"Ah, this is already good," Rochelle said, rubbing her hands together.

Nick and Ellis both raised their hands and said, "Me!" Nick sneered at Ellis, who chuckled back.

Francis pointed at Ellis and dismissed, "No, Ellis, you only get 7-Up."

Ellis slumped a little in his chair. "Aww, why?"

"'Cuz you're not old enough!" In fact, Ellis was of drinking age , but not to Francis.

Louis chuckled slightly, prompting Francis to point at him and declare, "Same goes for you, Louis." The younger, clean-cut office worker just sighed. He wasn't much for beer anyway.

Once all seven of them were seated and settled, Nick brought out the glasses for them to pour their beverages of choice into.

Coach lifted his glass and himself off of his chair. "Everyone? Everyone, let's have a toast."

"To what?" Zoey asked.

Coach gave it a bit of thought. "To friends, new and old."

That sent a wave of mixed emotion through the group. Zoey, Louis, and Francis lost one of their teammates after the outbreak started. When the two teams met up back in Savannah, they had some problems amongst themselves. Coach was distrustful of Francis, and Nick managed to antagonize the other trio of survivors. In the end, though, he was still sympathetic to their loss before they went their separate ways, only to reunite again at the evacuation shelter.

They knew what they had to do. They joined the others in their toast, touching their glasses together, causing some clumsy zigzagging across the table.

Coach chuckled. "All right, everybody, let's dig in!"

Then, they enjoyed a rich dinner of roasted ham with some nice side dishes and drinks. It was a (welcome) far cry from the days where they had to eat whatever they could scrounge up on the quick whilst on the run from the zombies.

"Dish ish really gud!" Zoey exclaimed, through a mouth full of ham and Heinz-57 sauce.

"Yeah, well," Francis said, shrugging slightly while loading up his fork.

Nick was right on top of putting two and two together. "_You_ made this?"

Francis glanced at Nick, then looked down at his plate., "Well, I had help."

Zoey giggled and Rochelle smiled.

-=X=-

After dinner, some of the survivors exchanged the odd gift here and there. Rochelle gave Francis a Christmas-themed vest, and interestingly, both Francis and Nick gave her some jewelry: a pair of pretty purple hoop earrings, and a pearly-white bracelet, respectively. Nick was rather surprised that both of their gift ideas were so similar, but his getting a different piece of jewelry was a sort of contingency plan for what Francis might have gotten for her.

Then Zoey suddenly realized that one of their team was missing. She found Ellis standing alone in a hallway away from their dorms. He was fidgeting with a little box that he quickly pocketed once she called out to him.

"Ellis?"

He turned around so fast he could have gotten whiplash. "Uh, hi, Zoey." He was wide-eyed.

She walked up to him with her hands behind her back. "Hi, Ellis. Whatcha doin'?"

"Uhhhh..." He scratched his head and paused for a good long time. "Nothin'. Um... what about you?"

Zoey cocked her head and smiled. "Oh, not much. Good party, huh?"

He grinned. "... Yeah."

Ellis was rarely at a loss for words, but when it came to actually _talking _to Zoey, he was tongue-tied. Rochelle encouraged him to pursue his crush, but he still nervous about meeting her face-to-face.

He liked that face.

All of a sudden, they noticed a shadow appear above their heads. They looked up and saw... mistletoe.

Coach was dangling the mistletoe above them from a string attached to a long stick. The others were standing behind him in the doorway. The question of them trying to be inconspicuous was rhetorical.

Ellis stared up bewildered at the little plant. Zoey stared and blushed. Then they looked at each other.

Ellis asked, "Is it okay if-"

Then Zoey grabbed and kissed him, deeply.

"Awwww!" Rochelle squealed.

"Finally." Louis said. Francis smiled a little, almost seeming embarrassed.

"Go for it, Ellis." Coach said quietly.

Then Nick threw in his two cents. "Did you know that mistletoe is poisonous?"

Rochelle, Francis and Louis gave him a brief, pleading look.

"Don't spoil the moment, Nick," Coach warned.

END

A/N: Oh, yeah. That was my _L4D _holiday story, requested by Megan Hale. It was very hard for me to come up with a story that wasn't too sappy. It needed just the right amount of sap for me to consider it worthy of completion. I hope she likes it. I'm rather pleased with the end product, especially considering how many drafts I did. O_O


End file.
